


Graveyard Shift

by Magicphobic



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Origin Story, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 11:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12131631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magicphobic/pseuds/Magicphobic
Summary: Rick finally has all the parts he needs to make a time machine. His Morty is super excited about it, but doesn't understand why Rick wants to build one. The answers become clear after late at night Morty follows Rick through a portal, which leads to a graveyard and a very important gravestone, which unlocks the story Morty never knew. Morty now understands why Rick wants to go back in time, but, even though it's not his place to stop him, Morty really doesn't want Rick to go.





	Graveyard Shift

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on OC versions of Rick and Morty from Dimension D-600. I made these guys up, though given the multiverse in Rick and Morty and how they work, technically they ARE canon haha. Expect some out of characterless since they are obviously not direct copies of C-137 Rick and Morty. This is sort of an origin story about my Rick, and what happened to his original Morty, along with his current Morty finding this out, among realizing other things. Here's what these two look like: https://68.media.tumblr.com/faa62a0a5d868a8715fc0788191431df/tumblr_owdc8jL1yM1uhwz56o1_1280.png Yeah the outfits are modified versions of the Citadel Guard outfits, but that's for a reason which will be partly explained in this fiction. Anyway enjoy! :o
> 
> Also format may look a bit weird cause its copy pasted from my word processor.

A portal opened up into a dimly lit laboratory in a remote location in an abandoned part of space. Two figures walked through it, a man and a young boy. They looked tired, exhausted even. Their clothes were ragged and worn, full of dirt and dust covering them from head to toe. They simultaneously let out a long sigh of relief upon seeing the familiar sight of the laboratory.

“Oh man, its good to be home!” The boy exclaimed, heading over to a nearby couch and swiftly flopping down on it, becoming motionless as he started to finally relax.  
“Tell me about it,” The man replied, opting to take a seat at the nearby workbench instead, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling. 

The pair was silent and motionless for a few moments.

“Oh man, oh man! I can't believe we just pulled that off!” The boy jumped up to his feet instantly, breaking the silence and gazed over at the man excitedly with a wide smile.  
The man quickly stood up too, joining the boy with the excitement. “Duh, of COURSE we pulled that off, who do you think we are? We're not some average lame-ass people, we're Rick and Morty! We do awesome shit like that all the time!”  
“Yeah, but this was like, extra awesome this time!” The boy beamed. “We like went to an old space volcano a-and like awoken this huge beast w-w-who chased us and stuff! And like I was all, 'Ahhh!' and you were all like 'RUN MORTY, RUN'! And so I did, and like the beast chased us and an earth quake started as all the ground around the volcano started to like explode with a bunch of lava and stuff and like, I thought we were gonna die, and I was so scared but then you were all like, pew! Pew! 'follow me Morty!' And we ran up a giant cliff and there was the huge crystals and the monster was still chasing us and-and then-” The Morty continued on trying to recall every single detail of the story.  
“I know it was awesome, I was there remember?” Rick smiled, watching Morty enjoy himself while reacting the adventure. “You were the real hero though Morty. We wouldn't of gotten out of there if it wasn't for you. The way you knocked that giant crystal loose and SPLAT, no more monster problem.”  
Morty paused in his actions and looked up at Rick with a proud smile. “Y-yeah, I did do that, didn't I?”  
“Yes, you did.” Rick reached out and ruffled Morty's hair slightly. “And on top it all, we got what we came for-” Rick walked past Morty and headed over to another workstation that was full of old parts and tools.

“R-remind me again what it was you needed, Rick?” Morty questioned, quickly following behind Rick.  
Rick reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small, brightly glowing gemstone. “This!” He held it up in the lighting, examining it. “It's a special sort of Time Crystal, Morty!”  
“What do you need a Time Crystal for?” Morty asked. “Are- are you building a time machine or something?”  
“That's exactly what I'm doing.” Rick confirmed while putting the Time Crystal into a special box on the table. “I'm going to time travel.”  
Morty's eyes lit up with amazement. “Wow, that's really cool! When will you have it built and working?”  
“Hopefully by sometime tomorrow.” Rick responded, turning to Morty now. “The concept of time travel itself is an easy enough thing to comprehend. It's building the machine and gathering all the parts that makes it hard.”  
“But now you have all the parts.” Morty stated. “And with a mind like yours Rick, it should be easy for you to build!”  
“Right you are Morty! But, I'm not going to start on it now, its already late enough.” Rick motioned to the clock on the wall.  
“Aw geeze, yeah. That adventure took a lot out of us, didn't it? I know it really tuckered me out.” Morty yawned. “W-what were we in there for? Like? Three? Four days?”  
“Yeah, it was a longer adventure, that's for sure.” Rick chuckled. “Alright kiddo, time for bed.” He ushered Morty towards their sleeping quarters, turning off the lights to the rest of the lab behind him.

__________________

 

Morty woke up in the middle of the night. Something seemed off. He sat up quickly, taking a moment to rub the sleep from his eyes before looking at the clock that sat on his nightstand. It read 3AM. His eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of lighting as he gazed across the room to the other bed. It was clearly empty.

“R-Rick?” Morty questioned as he shifted to get out of bed. “What's going -” He checked Rick's bed to confirm that it was in fact, empty for sure.

This worried Morty as he hadn't known Rick to just randomly get up throughout the night. He knew it was strange and that Rick was usually in bed all night, because any other time Morty had been woken up by a nightmare, Rick had always been there to comfort and calm him down. No, something was wrong here, Rick's lab coat and boots were also missing from his bedside.

Morty took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down before grabbing his own boots and heading out into the main section of the laboratory. As morty was turning the corner into the main area of the lab, he heard a familiar sound. Green light was illuminating the room. There he saw Rick, standing in front of an active portal, as if preparing himself to enter it. Morty watched him for another minute before suddenly realizing what was going on. He made a dash towards Rick, calling out to him.

“NO! No, no, no! Rick, wait! Don't leave me! Rick! Please! No, Please!”

Rick had already stepped through the portal, and having no choice, Morty ran in directly after him, just barely making it through to the other side before the portal closed behind him.

“Rick-” Morty tripped upon exiting the portal and landed face first into the ground. It was cold and wet. He picked himself up and looked around him. It was snow on the ground, and Morty quickly realized he was on a version of Earth, during the winter.

Morty saw the large footprints in the snow ahead of him and realized that Rick must not have noticed that Morty followed him through the portal, instead he had continued on with whatever it was he was planning on doing in this dimension. Morty swallowed a lump in his throat, picking himself up off the ground and pushing through the cold as the snow soaked in and made his clothes damp and uncomfortable. It was now that he was wishing he had taken just a few more minutes to grab his own jacket before freaking out and chasing after Rick.

Rick hadn't gone that far ahead of him. Morty only had to follow over a snowbank and down into a small clearing in order to catch sight of Rick again. He saw that Rick was standing in the clearing up ahead, he started to run towards Rick again.

“Rick!” Morty stopped suddenly, that feeling of knowing that something was wrong had followed him all the way here, and wouldn't leave him alone. It was really strong now, and looking around, Morty could see why. 

All around Morty in rows and down many pathways, the area was littered with large rock formations, but these weren't any type of rocks... They were tombstones. Morty had chased rick into the middle of a cemetery. Some things started to make sense to Morty now. One, Rick clearly had reasoning for being here, and probably wasn't abandoning him. Two, chasing Rick down like this when he clearly chose a time where Morty wouldn't follow him, was wrong, and now he kinda felt guilty about everything.

But yet curiosity took over, pushing Morty forward as he risked taking a few steps closer to Rick. A cemetery certainly was odd, and even though it was none of his business, he couldn't keep from asking the major question... What was Rick doing here?

Morty had taken one step too close though it seemed, as the loud crunch of ice under his feet caused Rick to flinch and quickly turn around. He pulled a gun on Morty, holding a defensive position, obviously not expecting to be followed by anyone. Morty simply froze in place upon seeing the sight of the gun aimed at him. He put his hands up slowly and suddenly started to tear up a little bit, spewing a string of apologies.

“D-don't shoot! I'm sorry! I should of stayed in bed! I-I shouldn't of followed you! I-Its none of my b-business what you're d-doing here! I'm sorry! I just... I just worried! You were g-gone and I... I thought... I'm sorry! I'm sorry!”

Once Rick realized who it was and what was going on, he quickly lowered his gun, sighing. “Morty...”  
Morty put his arms down now, seeing that Rick was only startled by him. “I-I'm sorry Rick, just pop a portal and... and I'll go home and leave you be. A-and I won't talk a-about this or mention it or-”  
“Shut up.” Rick cut Morty off, causing the boy to flinch slightly at the sudden tone. “Morty you idiot, where's your jacket, you're going to catch a cold-”  
“...Rick?” Morty seemed confused now, as Rick wasn't mad, only stern about him forgetting his jacket. He looked up at Rick as the man took off his own oversized lab coat and draped it over him, a bunch of questions burning through his head. “A-aren't you mad? I-I mean clearly you're in a graveyard for a reason-”  
“No, I'm not mad. Why would I be mad about you following me, clearly because you were worried about me?” Rick questioned. “I mean, yeah I came here for a reason, but it's not that big of a deal, really...”  
“T-then why did you come out here...”

Morty shifted and leaned to look behind Rick, glancing at the tombstone behind him. The one he was visiting. The name instantly stood out to. Morty gasped and stumbled backwards slightly, but Rick was there to support him.

“A-aw g-geeze Rick!” Morty looked up at him, ready to cry again. “I'm sorry, I d-didn't know! I know how you feel about all this! I-I'm sorry...”  
“H-hey! Calm down! It's okay.” Rick spoke to Morty trying to calm him down. “I just... I just don't like talking about it cause I get all emotional and shit... But y'know I guess we're already past that threshold now...” He cast his gaze to the ground beside him.  
Morty frowned. “We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, Rick.”   
Rick took a deep breath and stood up straighter, turning back to look at the tombstone. “No, it's fine. I already said its fine. To be honest... it's been ten goddamn years, it's probably about time I told at least SOMEONE about it...”  
“W-well alright, if you're sure...” Morty responded, stepping up now to stand side by side with Rick, looking over the tombstone in front of him. He noticed something. “W-wait a minute Rick, I'm not that good at math, but the date implies that-”  
“...He was four when he died.” Rick responded, staring straight ahead at the tombstone. “He wasn't the only one.”  
“What do you mea-” Morty took notice of the string of 4 other tombstones that were lined off next to the one they were standing in front of. The end date on them all the same. “Jesus Rick... What happened?”  
Rick sighed. “Where do I begin?”  
“...At the start?” Morty suggested.

At the start, the beginning, when it all happened. A few months before the incident, I had been contacted by a messenger, another Rick. One from the Citadel. As you know all Ricks MUST be connected and registered under the Citadel, no matter if you've made the connection on your own or not, eventually you would be contacted and brought to the attention of the Citadel. Well, it was my time to be introduced to it.   
I always knew of the possibility of other versions of myself and that they may have banned together at some point, but I was never really curious enough to go find out. I always had kept my dimension jumping to a bare minimum, and only ever did it if I really needed something. The reasoning for this being, that I was a different kind of Rick. It just so happened that even though I possessed the greatest mind in the universe, I had no desire to really abuse it, or use it to any gain. I was a family man, and, now I know, I was one of the very few Ricks who actually managed to keep his whole family together, and healthy.  
I was one of the few who didn't leave my wife and our daughter, I was one of the few that was tolerable of Jerry, I was one of the few to ever actually witness the birth of both of my beloved grandchildren. I didn't want to loose all of this, I didn't want to leave my family behind, I loved them too much for that. I didn't take advantage of my skill set, because I feared it would ruin everything else that I had going for me.  
And so naturally, that Rick, the one who came for me, with a job offer to work as a guard of the Citadel, was annoyed with my response. I declined his orders. He tried to convince me to change my mind, but easily became irritated when I kept refusing to go with him. I got angry too, and told him to leave, or I would have to use force. He threatened me on the way back through his portal, marked me as “another rogue”. I payed no mind to it, ignored it, and continued on with my life.  
Things continued on as normal the following months, I just sorta lived my life, spending time with my family. You'd almost think that whole incident with that Rick never even happened, I had forgotten about it. Nothing ever came of that threat of his, and nothing ever changed. We had a two week family vacation, my anniversary came up, summers birthday passed, she was eight now, Morty's birthday was coming up, he was going to be five.  
But I guess, all good things must come to an end. That cruel reality of the world we live in. Turns out completely forgetting about that run in with the other Rick was a terrible mistake on my part. He did keep true to his threats, and they waited exactly until I had let my guard down. That's when they attacked... That's when I lost everything.  
I had taken Morty to the park for the day, he always loved getting pushed on the swings. We had fun, but nothing could have prepared me for the shock that was waiting for us when we arrived home. Well, when we arrived to where our home should have been. It was gone, ruined, destroyed, my laboratory in the garage was being ransacked for any useful items, and there was no sign of the rest of the family anywhere, just a bunch of familiar strangers.  
Upon noticing us, we were sized at gun point, I could only imagine what was going through Morty's tiny four year old mind at the time, it was bad enough with all the stuff that was going through my own. I fought as much as I could for him, but the other Ricks overpowered me and took him from me. I'll never forget as that blaster sound continues to echo through my mind every time I think about it. The BASTARDS. The sick, dirty, cruel bastards...  
They killed him. They killed Morty, they killed my grandson. Right in front of me. They didn't hesitate, they just saw it as a missed target, and killed him. It should have been me, why couldn't it had been me? I was the one they wanted, why did they... Why did they do this to me? Why did they destroy everything I loved, everything that made me whole. They ruined my life, stripped me of everything I owned...  
And then of course, that same Rick who originally had offered for me to join the Citadel. He walked up to me, his wide smirk plastered across his stupid, ugly face. I was filled with so much rage, I wanted to kill him right then and there, but I knew I couldn't, I knew I was out numbered. He looked down at me, and spoke.  
“Ah, what a shame. Seems like a little accident happened here, and now your family's dead. No big deal, happens all the time. You've got tons of families out there, a infinite number of Ricks, a infinite number of Mortys, and an infinite number of everything in between.” He laughed at me, commenting on how pathetic I looked, and how he questioned why the Citadel thought me a Rick fit for fighting.  
Yeah, I was outnumbered, but that didn't stop me from snapping right then and there, stealing the blaster off of one of the guards who held me down and quickly putting about 7 Ricks down before taking the one responsible to the ground. I was stopped there as more heavily armed Ricks had me removed and held down. The asshole just brushed himself off and smiled again.   
“Consider me corrected, you do know how to fight after all.” He told the guards to let me go, and spoke with me one on one. He extended a hand to me. “Join us Rick, think of all the possibilities, you'll be even more happier than you already were. You're a version of the greatest man in existence, join your own kind, become even greater. Final offer.”  
I don't know what compelled me, after everything that happened, to respond the way I did, but I still did it anyway. Maybe it was in a moment of not being able to think clearly, so many emotions going through me at once, they call that trauma, right? I was silent for a few minutes.  
“Rick?”  
I took his hand.

Morty remained silent for several minutes, processing the story. He just learned something about his Rick that he never knew before. He could understand why Rick didn't want to ever talk about this until now... Why he never had a Morty before him, he lost his original one. No, that's not right. What really happened was that Morty was TAKEN from him. The Citadel of Ricks was always known to do some fucked up things, but this was just pushing it to the extreme.

“...Fuck!” Rick dropped suddenly to his knees in front of the original Morty's grave. “I-I'm sorry Morty! I'm sorry...”

Morty was startled by the sight of Rick suddenly breaking down like this... Was he, actually crying? He quickly grew anxious, he didn't know what to do or how to deal with this. It was normally him crying and Rick trying to comfort him, but what's a Morty suppose to do when his Rick starts having a break down? He had never dealt with these kinds of breakdowns with his old Rick. He thought for a moment, and then acted the only way he could think of.

He hugged Rick, trying to keep himself from crying too. “It-It's okay Rick... You did your best, it wasn't your fault Rick...”  
Rick wasn't expecting Morty to react the way he did, but yet at the same time he was glad. It was good to be told that, to hear it wasn't his fault. He knew it wasn't and that he'd been wrong by others, but It was hard to not blame himself after so many years... Having this reassurance... It was nice. “...Thanks...” He said with a sniff, already pulling himself back together, regaining his normal composure.  
“H-hey why don't we get out of here, yeah?” Morty smiled back at Rick, trying to take charge and cheer him up. “C'mon, let's go home and like, work on an experiment or something. Do something you like to do? Or if you want we can tackle that 10,000 piece puzzle. Y'know the one that you claim will only takes you 20 minutes to do? Boy do I want to see that.” He started to pull on Ricks arm, forcing him to stand up again out of the snow.  
Rick smiled, cooperating with Morty. He was right, it wasn't too good to stay her for long. A quick visit was all he ever needed. He stood up and took out his portal gun. “Yeah alright, we can head home and find something to do.”

And the two headed back home, putting everything that just happened behind them for now.

 

_______________________________

Morty woke up early the following day, which is odd considering he didn't get much sleep last night due to the events that happened, but something else was bugging him now. That and the noise from one of Rick's tools out in the main room was making it hard to sleep now as well. He yawned getting up, and doing his normal routine, but it felt off. Everything just felt off now since last night... and suddenly it hit him. Rick was building a time machine for a reason, and he just figured out what the reason was.

Morty walked out into the lab and caught glimpse of what he assumed was the base structure of the large time machine. Rick was working away on the framework, welding some pieces together with a specialized welding tool, that was also very loud and annoying. He quickly stopped though, upon noticing Morty was up, which was a rare sight to see him up this early.

“Oh hey Morty-” Rick acknowledged him, lifting his welding mask up and looking over at the kid. “What are you doing up so early.”  
“Oh y'know, j-just decided to turn over a new leaf and have a healthier sleeping pattern. Not like that torch of yours is loud a-as balls or anything.” Morty joked, walking up and having a closer look at the base of the machine. “Wow, you've got all this done already?”  
“Yeah, like I said, pretty easy once you have all the parts. Should have it finished by late this afternoon actually.” Rick replied, clearly proud of his work. “Wanna help out.”  
“...You're going to be leaving that soon?” Morty looked at Rick now with a frown, ignoring his request.  
“Uh, yeah I guess I am, why-”  
“Rick, I've been thinking about last night.” Morty walked now to lean against the table, folding his arms and looking down at the floor.  
“...What happened to not talking about last night and just going on with the satisfaction of knowing it happened?” Rick frowned, he was actually hoping that wouldn't of been brought up again, he felt a little stupid a few hours later now, upset that he lost his composure so easily last night and broke like a twig.  
“I don't mean to talk about the exact details specifically but...” Morty looked up at Rick, he was physically upset. “Rick, you're building this machine for a reason, and after last night, I think I know why.”  
“...What do you mean Morty?” Rick questioned. “Why do you think I'm building it other than to have awesome time travel adventures?”

“Because that's not why you're building it!” Morty exclaimed. “Y-You don't have to hide it Rick, you can be blunt with me y'know! I-I know I'm a bit sensitive sometimes b-but y'know something Rick? I'm not stupid!”  
Rick froze up, he wasn't expecting this kind of reaction from Morty. He let the boy continue on.  
“I-I know what you're planning, you've been after this for so long b-b-because you want to get your original Morty back! That's right isn't it? You want him back. You want to time travel to go back in time and stop your whole family from getting killed. I-it doesn't take a rocket scientist t-to figure that out, Rick!” Morty let out an annoyed sigh, trying to calm down, but still on the verge of tears. “I-I-I mean that's fine! You can do that! I just wish you weren't so secretive about it, a-and I'm not going to stop you or anything either! I know why you're doing it and I'm not- I'm not going to stop you, y'know? I have no right to. You can go back in time and get your original Morty if you want. I-It's just... It's just...”  
Morty broke down, putting his hands to his head and sliding down the table, tears starting to flow.   
“H-hey! Morty! Morty it's okay! Things will work out, calm down Morty!” Rick dropped his equipment and was instantly on the floor with Morty by his side, trying to calm him down.  
“It's not okay, Rick!” Morty yelled back at Rick, causing the man to recoil a bit. “I-I mean... I'm not stupid, and I'm n-not smart either, but I t-think I get the basics of time travel! When you leave, this breaks off into two timelines, one where... one where I-I'm just stuck here now, alone, with you gone, because you time travelled, and then there's the one where you go b-back and save your Morty...”  
Rick quickly caught on now. “...The one where everything that happened up until this point gets erased, everything I did never happened, I never joined the Citadel, I never picked up Steve, I never ran into you, I never killed your Rick...”  
Morty sobbed. “A-and I never get to meet you, and I'll never be free of m-my Rick unless he killed me, and the w-worse part is, I wouldn't even know that b-being free of him and actually... actually treated well was an option. Like n-none of this would never happen for me, Rick! I-It just ceases to exist!”  
“W-well look on the bright part, Morty.” Rick tried to cheer him up. “At least that version of you would of never known what could of been, so no harm done right? It's not like throwing you back into that abuse or anything, you never left it!”  
“Rick...” Morty looked directly back at him. “Rick... Don't go Rick... Don't leave me alone Rick... I don't want to be alone... I don't.... I don't want to go back to my old Rick... I-I know I have no right to ask this of you but... Please Rick, don't go.”  
Rick looked back at Morty and thought for a minute. He broke eye contact, looking away with a frown. “I'm sorry, Morty.” He stood up. “Hey, why don't you go play with your new Roy game I got you last month or something, grandpa's got work to do.”

Morty just kinda froze, was Rick serious? Morty knew he gave Rick permission to choose this option, to leave him, but he really didn't think Rick would take it. Maybe what the other Mortys said was true, Ricks were all the same. He just stared back at Rick, watching him get up, and pick up his equipment again, and start working again.

“...I guess that's it then...” Morty wiped a tear from his eyes, and slowly stood up, thinking on taking Rick's advice and just going to go play his stupid game while he still had time.

Suddenly a loud crash was heard and a small shattering sound followed it. Morty jumped and looked in the direction of Rick and the machine to see a large pile of parts knocked over and broken, and small shards of something scattered across the floor. He looked at Rick in confusion.

“Oh dammit! Oh nooo! Noo! Dammit!” Rick exclaimed, but something was off about his tone, he wasn't as angry or upset as he should have been about knocking his stuff over. “It's ruined! Ruined I tell you, ruined. Broken forever.”  
“Rick, w-what happened?” Morty asked, looking at the mess and then back at Rick.  
Rick bent down and picked up one of the shards. “Look Morty! Dammit! The super rare Time Crystal we just got, its broken! Destroyed!”  
Morty gasped. “Oh no! W-wait! We can go get another one, you need that for your machine to work right?”  
“Yes, It was the power core for my machine!” Rick exclaimed. “And now with out it, shits just royally fucked! It's over Morty!”  
“B-but can't you just get another-”  
“We can't get another one Morty! We needed this specific one, it was the only one of it's kind Morty!” Rick stated, tossing the shard over his shoulder.  
“Rick, there was like at least a hundred of the-” Morty tried to explain to Rick it wasn't the end of the world.  
“Nope! They are different I know they look exactly the same and I said any one of these would do but what I really meant was just that one, just that one would do Morty, and now it's broken, Morty!” Rick gave Morty a certain look, a look that suddenly gave it away.  
“Hey wait a minute...” Morty caught on, and suddenly started to smile. “Aw-aw man, geeze that sucks Rick! I'm so sorry! Looks like you can't time travel after all, what a bummer. I'm so sorry Rick.”  
“Y-yeah, and I was so excited to like, go back and erase the timeline and stuff, and reset everything, and get my original Morty back, and all of that.” Rick continued on, smiling now too. “I guess the next best Morty will just have to do.”  
“Next best Morty? Who's that?”  
“What are ya, a complete fucking moron Morty? You're a fucking dumbass Morty, he's standing right here Morty. Morty you idiot. I MEAN, HE'S RIGHT HERE MORTY.”

Morty broke the mood and busted out laughing. “Okay, okay. I get it. Me, it's me. I'm the next best Morty.”  
“Damn right you are, c'mere.” Rick pulled Morty in for another hug, ruffling his hair as he always did.  
Morty pulled back, and looked at Rick. “Hey Rick... Thank you...”  
Rick smirked, acknowledging the gratitude. “C'mon, whattya say we go do that 10,000 piece puzzle you wanted to do?”  
“Alright!” Morty quickly jumped and headed back into the living quarters of the lab to go find the puzzle box.  
Rick watched him run on ahead, and took a moment to glance back over at the mess of the now ruined framework of the time machine. He'd clean it up later. “Y'know, maybe the world isn't so random after all. Maybe some things do happen for a reason, and maybe sometimes that reason is the best possible outcome.”  
He flipped the light switch off, leaving the lab in darkness once more, and going to catch up with Morty.


End file.
